Monday, February 28, 2011

Conservative Lack of Honesty & Integrity? See Details Below...

Stephen Harper must think Canadians don’t care all that much about ethics and integrity. Nothing else explains his blanket defence of foreign aid minister, Bev Oda.

Under universal criticism for attacking a church organization like KAIROS, misrepresenting the assessment of that organization done by government officials, tampering with documents, and not telling the truth to Parliament – Ms. Oda’s credibility is gone.

But such behavior is not an isolated incident in this government. They’ve been ethically-challenged from the start. Remember the swirl of unsavory stuff that tarnished their coming into office in the first place back in 2006.

That Conservative campaign was founded upon two fundamental falsehoods.

First they promised to fix Canada’s Equalization Formula in such a way that Saskatchewan would gain $850 million every year in extra payments from the federal government. But that promise quickly turned into a lie.

Their only explanation afterward was to say it was obviously such a ridiculous promise that no one should have believed it. Strike One against Conservative integrity!

Secondly, they promised never to tax Income Trusts. That, too, turned into a lie. Tax them they did, obliterating $25 billion from the savings accounts of two million Canadians. Strike Two!

The Party has been under investigation for four years in connection with a system to divert some of their national campaign spending down to certain local ridings, thus circumventing national spending limits and cashing in on local election rebates.

Over a year ago, the RCMP and Elections-Canada raided Conservative Party Headquarters to seize evidence related to this scheme. It’s been in court ever since.

Last week, new charges were laid in this matter against the Conservative Party and four senior Party officials – including two current Conservative Senators.